Monthly Archives: March 2022

for the birds …

Toronto. Some ideas work; some don’t. In 1942, the third Reich experimented with pigeon photographers according to this article in the September, 1942 issue of Popular Mechanics . Cameras were attached to pigeons and set for automatic operation over a … Continue reading

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at the push of a button …

Toronto. An article in the April, 1942 issue of Popular Mechanics touts that, “Pictures can be taken at the rate of one each second with an electric studio-type camera”.  A casual read suggests that the camera predates Edward Land by a few years, … Continue reading

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the thrill of movies

Toronto. Kodak got into movie cameras and projectors in the 1920s to sell its amateur movie films. This ad from the December, 1937 edition of International Photographer shows a sampling of Kodak’s line-up of both 8 and 16mm cameras. Kodak … Continue reading

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camera is cheap and a film for free

Toronto. The Univex Corp set out to capture the low end photographic market in the States. The war in Europe caused a hiccup in their film supply. Univex used a custom style core on its “00” roll film with the … Continue reading

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in the briny deep

Toronto.  The BBC News for March 26, 2022 has a story titled. “SS Central America: Haunting photos recovered [in] the ‘ship of gold’ wreck on ocean floor”. The photographs that that survived the watery grave were all cased images with … Continue reading

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if you can’t beat them …

Toronto. Two events likely resulted in this version of the famous Speed Graphic. First the continuing depression and the need to economize; and secondly the success of the minicam and enlarging making smaller cameras very popular. As advertised in the … Continue reading

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Canada, eh?

Toronto. America is well known for its rather insular approach to us small fry. But occasionally the mighty country to the south goes out of its way to feature an article on a Canadian event. This article, called, “Canadians Pack … Continue reading

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go big or …

Toronto. For decades, I thought of Kodachrome as home movie or 35mm slide film. Journal editor, the late Ev Roseborough, corrected me as did another journal editor, the late Bob Lansdale. When Kodachrome was introduced (1935) it was limited to … Continue reading

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a question on some Canadian Photographs

Toronto. I often get interesting emails for the PHSC. For example, Mark Mackave wrote to the PHSC on behalf of his nephew, Cody Mackave about a photograph collection. If you can help Mark, please drop me a line so I … Continue reading

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what a pal!

Toronto. In the April, 1932 edition of the International Photographer, this strange camera called the PAL KO or PALKO was advertised. It was described as a post card sized folder that focussed on ground glass. Never heard of it. In … Continue reading

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